A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Iduma Igariwey, has called for the cancellation of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), citing what he described as a “catastrophic institutional failure” by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
Igariwey, who leads the South-East Caucus in the House, made the demand during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday.
“The entire process has lost credibility and fairness,” he said. “Students who diligently prepared were denied the opportunity to sit for their exams. What we’re saying is simple — the exam must be cancelled and conducted properly. JAMB cannot just move on and act like nothing happened.”
His comments follow JAMB’s admission that nearly 400,000 candidates were affected by what it described as a “technical glitch” and “human error,” prompting the board to schedule a retake of the examination on May 16 — just two days after the announcement on May 14.
Igariwey expressed deep concern over the short notice given to affected candidates, many of whom, he said, were unable to reach their designated examination centers on time.
“We received reports from across our constituencies — many students couldn’t make it to the exam halls. That’s our main concern,” he said. “You can’t just re-administer exams two days later without assuring the public that the issues which caused the failure have been addressed.”
He stressed that the hasty rescheduling of the exams showed disregard for students and called for greater accountability. “Nigerians deserve transparency. There are calls for an investigation into what went wrong, yet JAMB rushed ahead to organize another round of exams.”
Earlier, the South-East Caucus of the 10th National Assembly had issued a statement demanding the resignation of JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, as well as a full cancellation of the 2025 UTME across the country.
At a press conference held on May 14, Professor Oloyede publicly apologized for the disruption, stating, “We are human; we are not perfect.”
Despite the apology, Igariwey insisted that the credibility of the examination process had been compromised beyond repair and that only a full cancellation would restore public trust.
